My Language Learning Story

In the Realm of Science

1. Read aloud the following numbers.

13 30 307 69 145 90 850 615 1,520 5,000 100,000 5,000,000

When do we say and?

2. Practise the following phone numbers.

095 837 95 21 0172 375 4431 8 918 506 4348 8 902 771 1129

3. Practise the following dates: 1995 nineteen ninety-five (divide the number into two parts) 2000 (the year) two thousand 2007 two thousand and seven (twenty hundred and seven) 2025 twenty twenty-five April 1st April the first/The first of April (use ordinal numbers) 20:00 eight o’clock/eight p.m. How do you say these dates? December 12, 1987 26th August 2001 9th February 1900 31st September 2000 June 14, 1846 March 3, 1966 How do you say the time? 14:45 8:15 23:10 12:30 18:55 21:00

Unit 1. Progress Monitoring In this unit you have worked on the following vocabulary related to the topic “Ways of learning” classroom discussion to do a course in to take/to make notes on to improve knowledge/skills to take exam in to help with/to do an assignment a tutor/to tutor to focus on to keep a notebook risk-taking learning preference\style self exploratory work to organize ideas to take classes in (subject)/on (time) to develop one’s strengths to overcome one’s weaknesses to cope with problems to achieve results to gain knowledge lifelong learning Tick (V) the points you are confident about and cross (X) the ones you need to revise.

Unit 2 Study Smart, Not Hard

Lead-in

• Are you satisfied with the results you achieved at school?

• Have you worked out any learning strategies?

• Do you think studying at a university is different from that at school?

Why?/Why not?

• What makes an effective learning? Work in groups of 3-4 and come up with your ideas (e.g., motivation, …, ….).

Reading

1. How many English words that can translate the Russian word “ЦЕЛЬ” do you remember? Give as many equivalents as you can.

2. Read the text, find the other equivalents for the word “цель” and write them down.

3. Think of a proper title for the text. Explain your choice.

* * *

“Goals equals success”, says Paul Shearstone in his article on goal setting. Studies have shone, he argues, that “only three percent of the population are engaged in some form of goal setting and only one percent, on average, write them down. … No wonder that one percent that write goals down are the richest people around the world.”

Goal setting is a powerful technique that can improve all areas of your life. By deciding on your goals and targets you will know what you want you want to achieve, what to concentrate on. In your studies it will help you to focus your efforts in search for professional skills and knowledge, and to organize your resources.

It’s good to have big goals – a vision of what you want to achieve – and smaller and measurable objectives with exact time frames. By measuring their achievement, you will be able to see what you have done and what you are capable of. It will help you to move step-by-step towards your goal (to work towards your aim), at the same time improving your self-confidence. But this only possible if you follow a few simple rules in your planning process:

• Express your goals positively. The more positive instructions you give yourself, the more positive results you will get.

• Avoid setting general/intricate/unclear goals, putting in dates, times and amounts. Break big goals down into a number of small tasks.

• Do not set goals too low or too high. It is important that you can achieve your goal without losing motivation.

• When you have several goals, set priorities.

• And most important of all: WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN.

“The difference between a goal and a dream is the written word.” – Gene Donohue

(Adapted from: list of Internet sites used)

What do you think?

• Does Paul Shearstone’s statistics sound surprising? Is it convincing?

• Are the rules described in the text easy to follow? Why/why not?

• According to Gene Donohue what is a principal difference between a goal and a dream?

• Rewrite the statement about learning English you have made in Unit 1 Lead-in task using the recommendations given in the text.

Focus on language

1. Look through the text and write down possible combinations of the word “goal” with 8 verbs. Complete the word web below.

Managing your learning: Mind maps 2 Mind maps may be a good solution if you have a problem remembering new items of vocabulary and word collocations. And are usually called word webs.

2. Draw a word web for the verb to improve. Consult a dictionary if necessary.

3. Work in 5 teams. Each team completes word webs for the verbs achieve, set, organize, get and lose using its own colour marker. Mind maps are rotated every 1 minute, then the results are checked in class. The team that works out the majority of combinations is the winner.

Listening

Recording 1.2

You are going to hear an expert who gives some study tips on how to maximise our ability to learn and remember new information.

• Have you ever tried to improve your memory? What techniques did you use? Were they of help?

• How do you usually study for exam?

1. Listen to the talk and mark the sentences below true (T) or false (F).

1. Andrew Maze is a psychologist at the University of Manchester in the UK.

2. It is not a very good idea to try and learn a lot in one go.

3. 'Processing' or organizing information helps to learn it faster.

4. Don’t even try to memorize things before you go to sleep.

5. The phrase “growing evidence” means “decreasing number of facts”.

6. To efficiently consolidate the information you are learning

don’t learn a lot of things during one day.

What do you think?

• Do you agree with the expert’s advice?

• Does every student with good memory make a successful learner? Why?/Why not?

Reading

1. Read former students’ advice on how to study effectively. Write out the recommendations and advice they give.